Scrambling
for a Scrabulous success!

Plop!

V3 and Mr G were on their way to WTC when a soft sound and a howl of
displeasure from Shaz drew their attention. Screwing her face with
distaste, Shaz displayed a brownish blob that had landed on her arm
while strolling under a shady tree.

“Yuck! How disgusting,” she exclaimed, gingerly holding out the arm
from her body as far as she could manage.

A giggle escaped from Sachi while Ruwi did her best to keep a
straight face. Only Mr G cast an interested look, pronouncing that the
brownish patch would bring her good luck!

“Cheeya! I can’t wait to get rid of this muck,” Shaz shrieked zooming
into the ladies’ after the escalator brought them to the second floor.

After loads of soap and scrubbing she was finally satisfied.

“Let’s have a round of scrabble.” Sachi suggested. They gathered at
the cozy couch in the coffee shop while Ruwi foot the bill.

“I wonder who invented this game,” Shaz thought aloud picking up
seven letters from the bag.

“Not a scrabbled brained soul for sure,” Ruwi joked.

“Scrabble
derived from crossword,” Sachi explained but was cut short by Ruwi’s
wail: “Oh, no! I don’t have any vowels.”

“Scrabble was invented by an unemployed architect named Alfred Butts.
It was initially known as ‘Lexiko’ which was later developed and became
the 20th Century’s best-selling word game,” Mr. G enlightened them.

“Well, Scrabble is no trouble. I prefer it to many other games,”
Sachi noted.

Ruwi added: “You discover new words when you play around with the
letters. Sometimes you don’t think you’d be able to make a good word
with just two or three letters but you realize your mistake when you
play the game.”

To prove her point she joined a ‘V’ and ‘Y’ to Shaz’s ‘I’.

“Quite true. It stimulates your mind to think up words with the set
of letters at hand. Here you go...” Shaz added and much to Mr G’s
chagrin went on to make a four letter word to join Sachi’s ‘R’, winning
a triple word score!

“It is a good method to introduce taboo words to your kids. They will
find them in literature but wouldn’t know the meanings. It’s always good
to learn these words at home,” she concluded.

“There is no age limit to board games as family and friends can all
enjoy together. I remember we had a giant Ludo board with the word
‘family’ stamped across it,” Ruwi shot back fishing a couple of letters
out of the bag.

“Board games are a good remedy as time-killers like Monopoly. Ten of
us once played the game from night to dawn,” Sachi agreed taking a big
gulp out of his Amaretto Tease. Savouring the taste, he added: “It
teaches you about monetary transaction methods, bargaining aspects and
how to be shrewd in studying opponent moves.”

Shaz meanwhile added a ‘C’, ‘U’ and ‘P’ to Mr G’s ‘board’ before
chipping in: “Monopoly comes in different versions now like the Stars
Wars and the Children’s versions. What do you think about them, Ruwi?”

“You have many surprises once you land on a square which urges you to
pick a card and follow its rules. They are all similar and train kids to
live by the rules.”

“Cluedo is a very engaging investigative game. You have to find who
did, with what weapon and where. It brushes up skills of wannabe
detectives.” Shaz said as Mr. G contemplated on the best way to take
advantage of the ‘double word score’.

“With these board games I wonder why people waste time with video
games. Not only they use up electricity but they are bad for the eyes
too. Some of my friends are so addicted to them. All I can say is give
me a board game any time of the day,” Sachi sighed.

Ruwi agreed: “From highbrow games like chess to the entertaining
snake and ladder the variety is good and keeps everyone engaged.”

“Plus, they are free of violence unlike most video games and there is
friendly competition,” Shaz mused, making a word covering six blocks to
earn 28 points.

“How do you beat that?” japed Sachi gazing dismally at his remaining
letters.

Finally with one letter each in hand they began adding the scores.

“Shaz wins hands down,” Ruwi said over the mark-sheet.

“Really? I thought it was Mr G,” Shaz exclaimed.

Ruwi and Sachi looked at each other as the thought struck both of
them together.